I live on the South Coast and work are sending me to our Edinburgh office in February and so my question is is it possible to get to Glentress from Edinburgh mid-week using public transport?

A Google reveals probably not but I thought I’d ask anyway.

There does seem to be a dedicated bus but their site is down at the moment.

I won’t be renting a car.

Thanks!

DAVE

Aside from riding the 25 miles each way there and back or putting the bike in a bike bag (dunno if they allow such a large bag), the BikeBus is the only option. I think they are on facebook too if you needed to check them out now

f you arent bringing a bike it should be easy enough, lots of buses from edinburgh to peebles. then walk a mile to the trails and hire a bike?

Glentress Bike bus is no longer running. The web page is down but Karl put a post up on facebook to announce the end of bike bus last September. Shame as I was hoping to use it through the winter.
I have only once travelled on buses with a bike in a bag. It’s a lot of hassle anyway but bus drivers might not be as accommodating as the two I encountered that day.
It would be great if First Bus made provision for bikes on the Peebles service but then at present the best to be hoped for is that they turn up on time (or at all, as is my experience of the Haddington bus).

The 62 First Bus stops right outside the forest entrance, so you will be dropped off 100 metres from the trails.

I am 99.99% certain you won’t be allowed to take a bike on the bus.

You can hire a bike at Alpine, and there are changing rooms and showers in the visitor centre, and the staff at the bike shop are all nice so might mind a bag for you.

Not impossible !

If you’re hiring a bike at Peebles/Gt then yes, you can get a bus right to the entrance of Glentress, my sister did it once and met me there, I took her bike the day before.

EDIT What hels said.

First Bus will take you from Edinburgh and should stop outside Glentress if you ask the driver.

Taking a bike on the bus, to me that would be tricky. As previously mentioned you could hire from Alpine Bikes but if you are cycling on a regular basis then that would be expensive.

Some local forums might be an idea, TrailScotland have guys who sometime ride mid week and could offer lifts?

Heaps of people drive down (when there are hills behind the city with nice riding …) so try and hook into the various groups.

The Peebles bus also goes through Innerleithen where Alpine also have a shop and you can hire.

Both GT and Inners can be ridden in a day with a cycle-way between the pair.

A few years back, when I was looking at options for a potential trip from London on the sleeper train, I’m sure these guys were offering Edinburgh > Glentress transfers. Can’t see anything on their website now but probably worth contacting them.

I hadn’t heard that about Bikebus- Karl’s a top boy, shame.

The bus situation’s almost funny. Used to be, you could sometimes take a bike on, sometimes not. First got a bunch of polite letters about it, and recognised the public demand for bike transportation by banning them entirely.